The editor window — Nixt Slides docs

When a presentation is open, the window is laid out like this, from top to bottom:

The title bar — the presentation’s name and the commands for the whole file.
The ribbon — tabs of editing commands.
The work area — the slide list on the left, the canvas in the middle, the speaker notes pane under the canvas and, when you open it, the slide inspector on the right.
The status bar — the slide you’re on, a word count and the latest message.

Title bar

From left to right:

Item	What it is
Back arrow (tooltip Close)	Closes the presentation and returns to the start screen. If you have unsaved changes, you are asked whether to save them. On macOS the window’s own buttons sit to the left of it.
Name	The presentation’s file name, without the extension.
Amber dot (tooltip Unsaved changes)	Shown while there are changes you haven’t saved.
Lock icon	Shown when the presentation opened read-only.
Location	Where the file is on your computer, or “Not saved yet” for a new presentation.
Present (tooltip “Present from this slide F5”)	Starts the slide show from the current slide. See Presenting a slide show.
Save (tooltip “Save ⌘S”)	Saves the presentation. Unavailable for a read-only presentation. See Save a presentation.
Download icon (tooltip Save a copy as)	Saves a copy as a PowerPoint presentation, PDF, Markdown outline or plain text. See Printing and exporting.
Three dots (tooltip More)	Opens the More menu.

Item	What it does
Show notes / Hide notes	Shows or hides the speaker notes pane.
Slide inspector	Opens or closes the slide inspector on the right.
Version history	Lists earlier saved versions of this file so you can restore one. See Version history.
Widescreen (16:9)	Sets every slide in the presentation to 16:9.
Standard (4:3)	Sets every slide in the presentation to 4:3.
Hide this slide / Show this slide	Hides the current slide from the slide show, or shows it again.

Ribbon

The ribbon groups commands into tabs. Click a tab name to show its commands. Each group of controls has a caption underneath, such as SLIDES or ARRANGE.

Tab	What it’s for
Home	Adding, duplicating and deleting slides; bold, italic, alignment and bullets; Quick styles; lining shapes up; fill, stacking order, grouping and deleting shapes
Insert	Text boxes, rectangles, ellipses, tables, links and pictures
Design	Colour schemes, fonts, the slide background and the slide size
Transitions	How the current slide arrives in the slide show
Animations	Entrance animations for the selected shape
Slide Show	Starting the slide show, hiding slides, rehearsing and using timings
View	Normal and slide sorter views, speaker notes, hiding the slide, and the slide master
Table	Appears at the end of the tab row while a table is selected: rows, columns, merging, cell shading and cell text

Hover over any control to see what it does. When a control is unavailable, its tooltip says why — for example “Select a shape first”.

Undo and Redo sit at the right end of the tab row, whichever tab is open. Their tooltips name the change they would undo or redo, such as “Undo Typing”.

Collapse the ribbon

To give the slide more room, collapse the ribbon so only the tab names show:

Click the tab that is already open, or
Click the arrow at the far right of the tab row (tooltip Collapse the ribbon).

To bring it back, click any tab, or click the arrow again (tooltip Show the ribbon). If the window is too narrow for every control, scroll the ribbon sideways.

The controls on each tab are listed in the Ribbon reference.

Slide list

The column on the left shows a numbered thumbnail of every slide. The current slide has a coloured outline. Hidden slides are faded.

Click a thumbnail to go to that slide.
Drag a thumbnail up or down to move the slide.
Right-click a thumbnail for Duplicate, Delete and Hide (or Show).

See Working with slides.

Canvas

The canvas shows the current slide, scaled to fit the space available. It draws the slide’s own shapes on top of anything the slide master and layout place behind every slide, such as a logo or a coloured band.

Click a shape to select it. A selected shape has a coloured outline and eight small square handles.
Hold Shift and click to add shapes to the selection or remove them from it.
Double-click a shape to edit its text, or double-click a table cell to edit that cell.
Empty placeholders show a prompt such as “Click to add title” or “Click to add content”. Prompts appear only on the canvas; thumbnails, the slide show and exports leave empty placeholders blank.

To move or resize a shape, type its position and size into the slide inspector — see Move and resize a shape.

The canvas always shows every shape in place. Transitions and animations play in the slide show.

Speaker notes pane

The pane under the canvas, headed SPEAKER NOTES, holds the notes for the current slide. It is shown when a presentation opens. Close it with the × at its right (tooltip Hide notes). See Speaker notes.

Slide inspector

Choose More › Slide inspector to open a panel on the right, titled Slide. Choose it again, or click the panel’s × (tooltip Close), to close it.

The top of the panel describes the current slide:

Field	Shows
Title	The slide’s title, or a dash when it has none
Shapes	How many shapes are on the slide
Transition	The slide’s transition
Hidden	Yes or No

Under SELECTED SHAPE, the panel shows “Click a shape on the slide to see its position and size.” until you select a shape. Then it shows:

Field	Shows
Name	The shape’s name from the file, such as “Title 1”, or its kind when it has no name
Kind	The placeholder role, such as Title or Content, or the kind of object, such as text, picture, table, chart or group
X, Y	The position of the shape’s top-left corner, in points, measured from the top-left corner of the slide. You can type a new value.
Width, Height	The shape’s size in points. You can type a new value.
Delete shape	Removes the shape from the slide (tooltip “Remove this shape from the slide”).

Type a value and press Return (Enter) to apply it.

Status bar

The strip along the bottom shows, from left to right:

The slide shape: a ratio such as 16:9, 4:3 or 16:10, or the slide’s size in inches for any other shape, such as 11.69 × 8.26 in for A4.
Where you are and how much text the presentation holds, for example “Slide 3 of 12 (2 hidden) · 450 words”. The hidden count appears only when slides are hidden. Words in speaker notes aren’t counted.
The most recent message, when there is one, takes the place of that summary — for example “Saved to” and the file’s location, or a hint about why a command didn’t run. The messages are explained in Troubleshooting.
A spinner at the far right while a save or export is running.

Views

View	How to get there	What it’s for
Normal	View › Presentation views, first button (tooltip “Normal — one slide, edited”)	Editing one slide at a time, with the slide list and notes
Slide sorter	View › Presentation views, second button (tooltip “Slide sorter — every slide at once, dragged into order”)	Seeing and reordering every slide at once. See Use the slide sorter.
Slide master	View › Master views	Editing the items the master places behind every slide. See Editing the slide master.
Slide show	Present, `F5` or the Slide Show tab	Presenting. See Presenting a slide show.

Keyboard access

Press Tab and Shift+Tab to move between controls. A focused control has a coloured ring; press Return (Enter) or Space to use it. Controls have names that screen readers announce. All shortcuts are listed in Keyboard shortcuts.